04 MARCH 2015

Burns Has Titanium Plate Fitted After Beltran Fight

Burns underwent surgery after fight

By Clive Bernath: Ricky Burns has undergone surgery after suffering an horrendous jaw injury during his WBO lightweight title fight in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday night. The Scot barely hung on to his title after scrapping home via a controversial 12 round majority draw.

Burn’s promoter Eddie Hearn announced on Twitter that the champion was in surgery immediately after the fight: "Long night. Ricky is now in surgery to have a titanium plate in his jaw.

"Lots of tweets about the decision, it’s difficult for me to score the fight with an emotional attachment, my gut feeling when I got in the ring was the Beltran had it after a close fight.

"I’m not sure how Ricky continued for 10 rounds with an injury like that and right now my concerns are for him and making sure he is ok."

Prior to being admitted to hospital, Burns told Sky Sports: "I knew it was close. I was trying to stick to my jab but I think he could see that my jaw had gone, he came in with swinging hooks."

The general consensus after the 12 rounds was that Beltran had done enough to win but one judge saw the fight for Burns, 115-112, one made the fight even at 114-114 while the third official made Beltran the victor, 115-113. For the record SecondsOut made the fight 115-113 for Beltran.

It does that the only way to settle the controversy is for Burns to give Beltran a rematch. However, before that can happen Burns have to fully recover and that can take anything up to a year,18 months.